WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th October, 2021) The United States leadership in its decisions on the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan chose the calendar-based approach, and did not take into account the real situation in the country, former US Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said on Sunday.
"The decision ultimately was made to put conditions-based aside and follow a Calendar basis," he said in an interview with the CBS broadcaster.
Khalilzad, who said the withdrawal did not turn out as he had envisaged in his resignation letter, noted that the new US administration had the room to make choices despite inheriting the agreement with the Taliban (banned in Russia) from the previous administration.
"No doubt they (President Joe Biden and his administration) had that opportunity to take a look at it. And they did. They could have made a variety of decisions with regard to that agreement. They decided to stick with the withdrawal provisions," Khalilzad said.
He clarified that Biden picked the calendar-based approach over fears that by pursuing a conditions-based approach, which envisioned an inter-Afghan agreement first, the US would be "stuck there (in Afghanistan) for a long time."
At the same time, Khalilzad stressed that it was only the final phase of the withdrawal that went awry, in particular the Kabul airport stampede and chaos during evacuations. Some of what happened could be attributed to false expectations and miscommunication, as many Afghans believed anyone could be evacuated if they made it to the airport, regardless of documents, the ex-envoy explained.
The US military withdrawal from Afghanistan was completed at the end of August, ending the nearly twenty-year American military presence in Afghanistan. Fearing for people's safety, most countries evacuated their citizens and some Afghan collaborators following the Taliban takeover.
Currently, hundreds of Americans remain in Afghanistan, Khalilzad estimated, though the exact numbers are unknown.
